Bergamo (through their Rubelli line) has a really fresh grouping of three patterns or so done with hand blocking in black and gold metallic dye on a bright linen ground. They cry out for use in some beachy setting — on pillows, drapery or bedding. The one shown above looks like a contemporary interpretation of traditional Fijian Tapa cloth patterns, example pictured at top.

I always end up testing my financial self-control when I check in on the suzanis for sale on EBay. I casually did this earlier in the year and ended up obsessed with a beautiful pink and grey one said to be from the 1950’s. After several days of watching the price slowly rise I ended up in a last minute bidding war that left me the winner. It arrived several days later in a tight brown paper bundle sent straight from Uzbekistan — detail shot shown below. I love it but don’t know what to do with it! (My cat will claw it to death if I have it out on the bed or sofa and I don’t have a good spot to hang it on the wall at the moment.) In any case, I have no regrets but do know I should exercise restraint in the future as much as possible! Shown above is a really colorful one that’s up for sale now until October 12th. Last night it was priced at $40 but as of this posting it’s shot up to $199. Key words: “Antique 1900 Uzbek Silk Hand.”

I was google-ing around looking for more information / images of khadi fabric and came upon this website selling it along with “kantha” textiles — also new to my vocabulary! According to one link kantha is characterized by simple embroidery and was developed out of a desire to make new and more beautiful use out of old fabrics — resulting in scraps being layered and stitched together with colorful embroidery. In sanskrit “kontha” means rags. In any case, this baby quilt is one of the Kantha wares being sold — so whimsical and cute!

The October issue of The World of Interiors is out (always full of things you’d never see in American magazines, plus really quirky art direction). There’s a nice introduction to “Khadi”, a type of simple cotton made in India (hadn’t heard of it before). The article profiles Bess Nielsen, a shop owner in Paris who specializes in this type of fabric. — One photo from the article above.

There are plenty of fabrics available through showrooms that I really like – but there are others that I LOVE and need to hold onto, usually in memo form, for long periods of time. Three of my current top ten (or so) have this great chartreuse color — a color that’s both ugly and beautiful, and more enticing because of that tension. This first one I have cherished for years now — it’s from one of my favorite companies Raoul Textiles. The second is from Manuel Canovas. And then more subtly, the “Marrakesh” pattern from the always exciting company — Mokum.

It seems fitting to start at the beginning with a brief moment dedicated to the Pazyryk (or Pasyryk) carpet. As the oldest known carpet, its importance was ingrained in me while taking a course on the history of carpets at Bard Graduate Center a few years ago. It was discovered along the border of Siberia and Mongolia by a Russian archaeologist named Rudenko in 1949 . It’s about 70″ square and is believed to have been created in the mid 5th century, B.C.E. What’s really cool though, is to see how highly developed the carpet is — and to realize that carpet weaving must have been going on for many centuries prior to have reached the level of expertise the Pazyryk displays. It has lots of interesting details, especially the men riding horses along the border.

Well, months after first thinking I should start a blog dedicated to all things fiber-ous, I’m finally getting started! On this site I hope to explore and document textiles that inspire me — the whole range from traditional fabrics and motifs to contemporary bedding, carpets and accessories. I’d like the site to be a virtual portfolio of visual references, associations and ideas, all tied loosely together under the broad category of “fiber”. Why? Because more than any other artistic medium I’m viscerally attracted to textiles. They wrap up so many things: craft, texture, tradition, artistry, innovation, warmth, etc….